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8
DUST AND ASHES.
American Fashionable Life in a New
Novel by Mrs Wharton.
THD HOUSE OF MIRTH. By Edith Wharton.
f- Illustrated by A. B. W«msel!. 12m°, pp. 532.
Charles brer's SOBS.
Mrs. "vTharton's new book is another sign of
| the times. In these days of "exposures," with
business and politic* coming under ruthless
scrutiny, it is perhaps inevitable that fashiona
ble life should have Its turn. "The House of
Mirth" might well be the report of a kind of
•oclal commission. It embodies a 'case," and
one can almost see the heroine, Lily Bart, In
the witness box; one can almost hear the prose
cuting attorney demanding that this or that bit
Of evidence be admitted to the records as "Ex
hibit A." We can imagine the book being called
a satire, but only with accuracy if the same
word may fairly be applied to a Judge's charge
to the Jury. At the same time. Mrs. Wharton
Is too skilful to let her novel degenerate Into
a tract. The story, as a story, is impeccable.
Though the author is not the first in the field.
she is the first to make a really powerful and
brilliant book out of the material offered by
American fashion to the novelist. "The House
of Mirth" is full of "social documents," and we
dare say that much of its certain popularity
wl!! be due to its vivid pictures of the little
world of wealth and pleasure. But if it leaves
a deeper and more lasting impression than, for
example. "The Valley of Decision." the only
other thing which Mrs. Wharton has done on so
large a scale, it will be because it exhibits her
in full possession of the art of fiction. This is
a sterling piece of craftsmanship, a tale which
interests the reader at the. start, and never lets
him rest till the end is reached.
Its heroine is presumably a type. Lily Bart
has individual traits, but she Is, above all things,
a daughter of her place and time, a girl of mod
ern York, born and bred to enjoy herself-
But neither her father nor her mother has any
notion of fortifying her character against pos
sible misfortune, and when Mr. Bart dies, a
ruined man. his -widow's reflections on the wel
fare of their daughter run in this wise: "Only
'one thought consoled her. and that was the con
templation of Lily's beauty. She studied it with
a kind of passion, as though it were some
■weapon she had slowly fashioned for her ven
geance. It was the last asset in their fortunes,
the nucleus around which their life was_ to be
rebuilt." That life was itself devoid of any re
lations calculated to save Lily from her train
ing. "Her parents had been rootless, blown
hither and thither on every vmd of fashion,
without any personal existence to shelter them
from its shifting gusts. Pbe herself had grown
up without any one spot of earth being dearer
to her than another: there was no centre of
«arlv pieties, of grave endearing traditions, to
■which her heart could revert and from which it
could draw strength for itself and tenderness
fo: others Tins handicapped when her mother
dies, Lily Bart goes to live with a rich old aunt,
a Mrs Penlston. The letter's house and her
life are models of dull propriety, but Lily's
' asset" endures, and with money enough avail
able to keep her going In her own set. at least
■until her austere kinswoman dies and leaves her
a fortune, she starts In pursuit of her natural
prey— a rich husband. She Is Diana the huntress
In a modern ball gown, armed with the deadly
•weapons of wit and beauty.
If this were all. Mrs. \V barton's story would
soon be told, but from some mysterious source
Lily has acquired The instinct of revolt. It Is
not her beauty alone that marks her out from
her familiars and wins their homage. She makes
an appeal which is deftly Indicated in a passage
on her friend Selden's view of the matter. "He
was aware that the qualities distinguishing her
from the herd of her sex were chiefly external;
as though a fine glaze of beauty and fastidious
ness had been applied to vulgar clay. Yet th£
analogy left him dissatisfied, for a coarse texture
will not take a high finish— and was it not pos
sible that the material was fine, but that cir
cumstance had fashioned it into a futile shape?"
Selden's dubiety 1= snared by the reader, who
never knows at a given moment what Lily is
going to do or be in the next. She herself is
frequently at a loss to decide. Phe has glimpses
Of a higher ideal. Sometimes faintly, sometimes
clearly and with a rush of emotion that almost
amounts to conviction— she sees the truth of
that verse In Eccleslastes from which the title
of this novel la tak»n. But if she realizes that
"the heart of fools is In the house of mirth" she
is too much the creature of her surroundings
to throw prudence to the winds and fly from
that comfortable mansion. "She likes being
good," she says of Gerty Farish. the humble foil
to h*>r loveliness and splendor, "and I like being
happy." Elsewhere the author says:
She had a vision of Miss Parish's cramped flat
with its cheap conveniences and hideous wali
paper?. No; she was not made for mean and
shabby surroundings, for tne squalid compromises
of povfrty. Her whole being dilated In an at
moFr,her<; of luxury: it was the background sh«
required. the only climate she could breathe In.
There is nothing for her to do. then, but to
make the best she can of her mnnde— and what
a mosHlr it is: This is a novel of manners, even
more than it is a novel of character, and Lily's
associates, as Mrs Wharton paints them, un
flinchingly and at full length, make appalling
company. it is not that they do nothing but
amuse themselves, overfeed, intrigue, gamble
and gossip— since these are the employments of
more people In the twentieth century than any
single stratum of society could accommodate
but that they are bo selfish and bo heartless as
almost to dehumanize themselves and their
transactions. Their one common impulse is to
ward the service of their caste. We hear it said
that human nature is the same In all ages, but
society is not, and the human nature encoun
tered in "The House of Mirth" is. to an unprec
edented degree, the sl.-.ve of society, swayed by
a passion for conformity which transcends th«
passions of love and hat". Adventures are to
the adventurous, and while one of Balzac's
women would make much of dining at the can
onical hour, she would make more of meeting a
clandestine appointment. Lily and her friends
draw back from the sharper tests. They are all
for appearances and the world well lost, and
though Lily's whole history is influenced by an
indiscretion committed in the first chapter, her
Struggle is never with an heroic issue, but always
on a pedestrian leveL "Perhaps I might have
resisted a great temptation." she says, "but the.
little ones would have pulled me down." They
do pull her down, and what makes her as pitia
ble as she is charming is the fact that the net of
circumstance In which she is enmeshed is made
up of such contemptible strands.
There is no one in the book strong enough to
create the situation which would bring her moral
energies to th» exploding point, Once there is
a dramatic passage, that in which Lily's foe,
Bertha Dorset, basely and publicly puts her in
a false position, and Mrs. Wharton handles this
so well that we think wistfully of the things she
might have done with her various personages if
they had given her the. chance. But the af
firmative note In lacking to them all. Mrs Dor
set alone has the courage of her convictions, and
she has more craft than courage. The rest of the
women are weak vessels and the men are no bet
ter, for between the cowardice of George Dorset
and the Impotence of Selden there Is really not
much to chos*«. Virtu** Is scarcely more at
tractive than vice In this book. Selden is not
merely unworthy of Lily, he is intrinsically a
{••Die soul, a milk-and-water hedonist, whom,
with the best will in the world, we find It ban]
not to despise; and nearly every one else who
appears wearing the white flower of a blame
less life, Mrs. Peniston, Gerty Parish or Percy
Gryce. I* either commonplace or flatly ridicu
lous. In all this there is. perhaps, a force Inlmlca
to the balance of the novel. The worst circle has
Its redeeming section, and it seems Incredible
that no one' of Lily's friends, any more than
Lily herself should be able to bring a breath of
rreah. Invigorating air Into "The House of
Mirth." It Is difficult to see why the scenes
which are not fashionable should mostly have
something absurd or squalid about them. Amer
ican life la noi Invariably cither all brilliance
or all dinginess. It is conceivable, for example,
that Gerty Parish might live In a cramped flat
and still nnd wallpapers which were not
"hideous:" and, similarly, it would be possible
for a Lily Hart to illuminate the Grand Central
Station with the radiance of her beauty without
the. presence there of the "sallow faced girls in
preposterous hats, and flat chested women.
struggling with paper bundles and palm leaf
fans." who somehow seem, with other drab fig
ure?, to be adventitiously brought in to heighten
tho heroine's distinction. In other words, a
broadening of the canvas to permit the intro
duction of some of the more normal phases of
our social system would have helped to give the
work a richer quality, and would only have
served, we believe, to put Miss Hart in a truer
perspective. On the other hand, there is a dis
passionate finality about Mrs. Wharton's pre
sentation of the essentials in all those charac
ters she has chosen to illustrate, which forbids
us to dwell too long on the significance of her
omissions.
The book has an accent of confident veracity,
it piles charge upon charge against most of the
actors In the drama until the jury, as we have,
hinted above, cannot but convict, yet there Is
never any straining of the argument, and only
a 1 a single point is the fabric of the story held
together by a doubtful expedient. That is where
Selden is led to pass the Trenor house just when
Lily's leaving it before his ryes is bound to
affect his attitude toward her, and thereby
thicken the plot: the coincidence seems forced.
For the rest. Mrs. Wh&rton has her work per
fectly in hand, and gives to "The House of
Mirth" an artistic integrity which is a kind of
rebuke to the horde of "popular novelists." The
narrative moves with delightful elasticity, as
though it had been written out of a full mind
and with a certain fervor. Tt has vitality and
It has finish. Best of all. it has the rare quality
of fulfilling its uttermost intention, of justifying
Itself where Justification is seldom achieved. We
are perpetually being told In the novels of the
day that the heroine has all manner of beguiling
traits, but in nearly every case we have to take
them on faith. Lily Bart Is a credible human
figure, who never fails below the standard of
charm which -we are asked to recognize when
she first appears. She is a weak woman, else
she would not suffer half the humiliations she
is called upon to bear. But at no stage of her
career, not when she Is ingeniously seeking to
"land" Mr. Gryee, not when she is flirting with
Gufl Trenor and dabbling in Wall Street through
him, not when she is straining every nerve to
rehabilitate herself in a society -cvhich her better
nature tells her is unworthy of her ambitions.
does she alienate our sympathy. It is the last
tribute to Mrs. Wharton's successful portraiture
that we rejoice at her heroine's escape from two
of the fates within her reach, and wince at her
subjection to the third.
MR. HIGGINSON.
His Chapters of Amiable Comment
and A necdote.
PART OF A MAN ? IJFE. By Thomas Wont
worth Higginson. Crown Bvo. pp. 311. Hough
ton. Miffiin & Co
This volume offers to the leisurely reader a
collection of more or l»ss pleasant, if not very
Important, comments on people its author has
known, and on matters of life, literature and
opinion which have occupied or interested him.
If there is not much that is fresh In these pages
it must be admitted that the choice of well worn
subjects is a privilege of the veteran in' the
chimney corner. The Transcendental period in
New-England has been written to death ill re
cent years; nevertheless we have read with
pleasure what he has to say concerning it. He
does not emulate the vein of humor In which a
fair New-Engrlander describes the Transcen
dentalists as "a race who dove into the infinite,
soared into the illimitable and never paid cash."
and the kindlier picture is more just if less
amusing. We have to thank him for a delightful
story at the outset— that of the visiting British
authoress who at a dinner of our Cambridge
notabilities confidingly observed to one of them
—the author himself — "Don't you think it rather
a pity that all the really interesting Americans
seem to be dead?"
Mr Higginson records in another chapter the
equally comic remarks of an Englishwoman en
countered on her native heath. This friendly
dame said that it "had always seemed odd to
— since Americans were so cordial and so
ciable and the English were Justly regarded as
stiff — that it should nevertheless be Americans
who addressed every newcomer as stranger, 'or
strahnger," she added, when English people
would more naturally say 'my friend." "
When I defended my fellow countrymen asriincf
the charge, and described the offending epithet as
belonging to the newer and more settled parts of
the land, she said with surprise that she had al
ways been told that we addressed every new ac
quaintance with "Wei!, strahnger, I guess." I got
The [vantage of $«-r a little, however, when we
came to talk of railway travel. She inquired if it
was true, as she had been told, that American
railway conductors often stopped the trains In
order to drive stray cattle off the track. 1 did not
feel called upon to tell her that I had seen thin
dune In my childhood, when the tirst railways were
built, within a dozen mil^s of Hot-ton, but I ex
plained that it might still be done sometimes In
the great farming and grazing regions of the coun
try were it not that we had a contrivance In the
shape «.t a frame built out In front of the locomo
tive to guard against that danger. This valuable In
vention, I told her, was known as -,\ "cowcatcher."
She listened with deep Interest, «nd then asked
with some solicitude, "But is it not rather (Jan
perous for the boy?" and I Inquired in some be
wll 1 rrTie.it. "What boy?" "Why." she answered,
"the boy of whom you spoke, the cowcatcher!"
In a chapter on "English and American
Cousins," the author makes some neat com
parisons and indulges in some pertinent remin
iscences. "No criticism from Americans is more
common." he says, "than that as to the greater
slowness of the English mind as compared with
the American."
Professor Tyndall. when lecturing in this country,
was amused to find, as h*- told me, that Whereas
In making experiments before a London audience
he had to repeat his explanation three times— once
t'_> make his bearers comprehend what he was
about to do, then to (how what he was doing, and
then to explain what be had done--he could after
his Hrst lecture in America omit the final explana
tion, and latterly the middle on*- as well. He also
told a story to the same effect about an English
manager of a 'minstrel" troupe travelling In
America, who was accustomed to prolong his jokes
by the aid of two end men. each bringing out a
part of th« joke, but who found with Indignation
that, every American audience "caught on with
out waiting for th« second end man. Yet the care
ful American observer soon finds that the standard
of quickness is to be determined in England, as
everywhere else, by the point of view. People who
go slowly on new ground may turn out to be
find k enough when wholly at home with any par
ticular line of thought.
Of the letters of celebrities here reproduced
In facsimile several are merely brief notes of
courtesy, and are of no interest save to the
person to whom they are addressed. Of the
longer epistles, thai from J. A. Froude In refer
ence to Carlyle and his "Reminiscences" 1* best
worth quoting: "You will not misunderstand
mo." he writes, "when 1 say that I am not
sorry myself that th« rush of unmeaning adula
tion which burs- out at his death was checked
by the -Reminiscences' for which I am respon
sible.
men'^Wo^rr^ ass™ ° iiim - ■»« wl " n
what he did for tiV world th whiU .. hf> waB ' ; "'''
grateful that :h.- y "'v. ■', L 1L 1 th ," v wili '" ' forever
Authentic as it I^utifS M K^,', ctHre "'.J 11 ™ M
disgusted him more than « .A" ," ; '" ul<l nave
England and America thru M agreement "
man, and that ha inns' ha V « , "J b * en n *-""
the l«sons whi.Th h"taueh w* 1 """ lh " •"»•
l "" 1 We repudiated ur
NEW- YORK DAILY TRIBUNE. SATURDAY. OCTOBER 14. 1905.
Books and Publications.
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
PUBLISH TO-DAY
fIE KOUSfc Or r-;-rJH
The Saturday Times Review said of this work while it was
running as a serial: "In American fiction the first place
among the autumn novels will undoubtedly be filled by Edith
Wharton's powerful social study."
VISIONARIES By JAMES HUNEKER
Extraordinary nnd original ptorir«, "otcult ami pagan, mystical and
gothic." $Ls °
btevenson-8 A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES
With illustrations in color by JESSIE WILLCOX SMITH
The exquisite drawings in color and pen and ink are a perfect inter
pretation of Stevenson's inimitable verses. $2.50
THE CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT By ttm lSSl£S? umM
These are the poems of which President Roosevelt paid : "There is an
undoubted touch of jrenius in the poems in this volume." $1.00 net
Published This Day.
The First Detailed Account of Mr. Rurbank's
New Creations in Plant Life
AN AUTHORITATIVE ACCOUNT OF THE
LIFE AND WORK OF LUTHER BURBANK
By W. S. Harwood
A simple, full description of Mr. Burbank's methods of
growing new varieties of flowers, fruits and trees.
Illustrated with 49 full-page plates, fi.75 net (postage 15c)
Mr. Emerson Hough's new notel
Heart's Desire **&& this day
By the author of "The Mississippi Bubble."
Heart's Desire c/o/ ' iUu <trj teds '-^
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Publishers, 64-nn Fifth Aye. , New York.
forgotten A little before his death hf said to me,
■The world says now that I am this and that, and
profess to admire me. but they do no^hinp wnirn I
have told th^m, and they do not relieve what I
say " A. statue will b<- raised to Carlyle by and
by— many statues— but it will be when people are
in a wiser state of mind and hav»> learned that he
saw deeper Into the spiritual and moral conditions
of the modern world than have, any of the false
prophets whom they take as their practical guides.
He was an extraordinary man-extraordinary In
his Intellect and peculiar In his chara.-ter I should
be false to him and false to my duty if I were to
trick him as a painted idol for the mob to put In
their temples like their Christs and Virgins, while
the keeping the commandments they think as little
of with one as the other.
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
Current Talk About Things Present
and to Come.
Bret Harte's three well known poems. "Her
Letter," "His Answer to the Letter" and "Her
Last Letter." are to he brought out next week
by Houston, Mifflin & Co. in a special edition
In one volume as a holiday book. It will be
abundantly illustrated by Arthur I. Keller, with
nine full page drawings in colors, more, than
thirty full page sketches in tints and many head
and tail pieces.
The Macmlllan Company publishes this week
Kaempfer's "History of Japan In 1693," in a de
luxe edition in three volumes, uniform with
their recent edition of Hakluyt'S "Voyages'
and "Purchas His Pilgrimea." The work, which
contains more than two hundred illustrations.
Is aptly described In the illuminative sub-title,
which runs as follows: "An Account of the
State and Government of the Empire; of Its
Temple? and Other Buildings; of Its Metals.
Minerals, Plants and Animals; of the Chronology
and Succession of its Emperors; Written in
High Dutch by Engelbert Kaempfer, Physician
to the Dutch Embassy to the Emperor's Court,
and Translated by J. O. Scheuchzer, F. R. S."
Booth Tarklngton's "The Conquest of f'nnaan.' 1
which Is now running as a serial in "Harpers
Magazine." nnd his novelette, "The Beautiful
Lady." are both to be adapted for the stage
by Genevieve E. Haines, the author of "Hearts
Aflame."
Mr. and Mrs. Williamson are nothing if not
up to date in the world of liction. Having set
the fashion of writing automobile novels, it is
now learned they spent a part of last summer
navigating the canals of Holland in a motor
l»oat. The result can be easily foreseen. Jt Is
to be hoped that the art of aerial navigation
will have sufficiently advanced to enable them
to write the first aeroplane novel before fh<
glamour shall have worn off their petrol yacht
stories. Jules Verne got in ahead of them
with a balloon novel many years ago.
William Barclay Parsons, th» author of "An
American Engineer in China," published by
McClure, Phillips & < '<> has written a com
prehensive article on the Panama Canal for
"The Century. Magazine," and it is scheduled
to appear In an early number. Mr. Parsons
was engineer In chief of the Rapid Transit
Commission during the construction of the
New- York subway; he mnde tho preliminary
survey for the Canton-Hankow Railway, and la
now one of the board of consulting engineers
of tii-- Panama <anal Commission. He is at
present on iii- way to this city from the isth
mus.
"Hearts Haven" la she title or the first novel
by 11 new author, Katharine Evans Blake,
\vhi<h the Bobbs-Merrill Company Is bringing
out The scene of the story Is laid among thr>
Rappite community of celebates In New-Ilar
mon y , [nd 1
Katharine M. Abbott, the author of "old
Paths and Legends of New-England." is en
gaged in collecting material for another Himi
lar volume, to ims published likewise by tha
By EDITH WHARTON
Illustrated by A. B. Wensell. $1.50.
Putnams. In a recent letter she writes of the
pleasant reception she has met in her searches,
and says:
The charm of travel over the picturesque Old
Paths of New England is deepened on meeting by
the wayside the true Xew-Englander's courtesy
and hospitality, after the old high-bred fashion. Ho
throws open wide his farmhouse door, and you will
listen with delight to some Revolutionary talcs
about "•granther's" old musket still hanging from
the summer beam. Behind the cordiality of these
keen readers of human nature- lies a dignity and re
serve not lightly broken down. The pinnacle of this
reserve la met on Cane Cod. whence so many of the
"P. F. X.V have originated. One of the "Old
Cod" said to me: "It's like this on the Cape: we do
not hold out a hand to you, but if you hold out
your hand, we take it."
Professor Tv Ray Lnnkester's new book on
"Extinct Animals" is to be brought out in this
country immediately by Henry Holt & Co. The
work is published in England by Archibald
Constable <t Co. Professor Lankester has been
for many years in charge of the natural history
department of the British Museum, and his new
volume, though devoted to the subject of paleon
tology, alms to treat the weird beasts and birds
of prehistoric times in a popular manner. The
Illustrations, though founded on scientific re
constructions of fossils and ancient, bones, are
said to rival in strangeness the wild inventions
of imaginative nonsense artists
The present legislative investigation of life
Insurance methods gives especial timeliness to
Miles Memander Dawson's new book, "The
Business of T.ife Insurance." published this week
by A. S. Battles & t o. Mr. Dawson Is a well
known consulting actuary of twenty-five years'
experience, and he writes not only for the bene
fit of policyholders, but for those who insure
them as well.
Moffat. Yard & Co. have issued their first
"List of New Books and Picture Publications. "
In view of the short time that has elapsed since
this firm was organized, their fall catalogue
makes an unusually attractive showing. Among
their publications not previously noted in these
columns is "Our Army for Our Boys." by H. A.
Ogden and Tudor Jenks. for which Mr. Ogden
has prepared, from the archives of the War De
partment, a series of colored plates exactly rep
resenting the uniforms of the United States
Army from its beginning to the present time
Mr. Jenks describes th« uniforms in his text.
illuminating it with characteristic anecdotes of
American soldiers. An "Automobile Calendar,"
by Edward Pen field Is another .striking and up
to-date feature on rhe list.
The "Notes on English History," written by
Napoleon on tiv- eve of the French Revolution,
are being brought out in an English version by
E. I*. Dutton &Co Napoleon's work has been
•illustrated from itempofary historians and
refreshed from the findings of later research."
we are Informed, by H. ury Foijamhe Hall.
F. R. Hist. s. the present editor, who .seeks t.i
hrintc out m hi.- comments that Napoleon was
not only a maker but a student of history.
Bliss Carman is the latest American poet to
receive the honor of a de luxe edition. A collec
tion of liis "Poems," taken both from his previ
ously published books and from his contribu
tions tO periodic.!!.-, is being is.su--,! by L. C.
Page A Co. The edition Is limited t v 350 num
bered copies, and will be published] in two vol
umes.
Amos H Wells's 1 k, "They All tiny Be
One," has just been brought out t>y Punk .<-
Wagnalls, to be met with the announcement
that the Officials Of the Church Federation have
<ie,nii,.(i to receive as delegates to their coming
convention I>r Edward Everetl Hale, t n ,. Hon.
John D bong and the Rev Samuel A Eliot, the
distinguished representatives of the Unitarian
Church, The Editor of "The Christian En
deavor World" could hardlj have published | lis
p'e.-i for a unification of denominations at a
more timely momi i,t
Edna Edwards Wylla baa 1 irtainly hit open
Books and Publications.
Books and Publications.
You Like a "Square Deal"!
Of late, much has been printed and said about
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The price of TOWN TOPICS is 10 cents per copy— 2B pages— (Holiday Num
ber—loo pages— 2s cents). $4.00 per year by subscription.
To secure its examination and trial by you, it will be sent you from now on untii
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Address TOWN TOPICS, 452 Fifth Avenue, New York
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An optimistic Utopian story, original and novel, chiefly composed of
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The Complete Novel by FRANCES DAVIDGE is
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KAT^JCROAV JAMtS HI\EKER. EDNA KE*TO\, ARTHUR B. MURICE, and others.
EILA^nEELER WIICO\. JOH«i KENDRICK BANGS, FRAN* D. SHERMAN, and othes.
THE. SMART SLT, 452 Fifth Avenue. New York.
a npw Idea In h^r first novel, just published by
Little. Brown & Co. It is called "The War.'. o«
thp Sewing Circle," and relates the imagined
adventures of an orphan who was adopted by
a sewing circle. fr>~ members of which took
turns in caring for him. passing him along from
..1,, to another every other month. Mrs. Wylie
is the wife of a clergyman and a descendant of
Jonathan Edwards. A native of lowa, her hus
band's first charge after their marriage was in
a Massachusetts village, and the impressions
formed on her Western mind by the N>>
land environment Inspired her story.
Th^ question of whether education increases
or decreases the receptivity of the human mini
is brought up In an interesting manner 03 Fred
W. Atkinson, In his m-.v volume, The Philip
pine Islands," recently published by <;tnn .<•
c<». Writing of the mental capabilities of the
Filipinos. Mr Atkinson says:
The writer's belief is that up to a certain point
Filipino children are quicker Intellectually than
American youths; but this view is not shared by
all the American teachers, many of whom reported
tt.at the Filipino child does not excel the American
child in anything. One teacher nevertheless sup
plemented her dissent by saying. "However, I am
delighted with what I consider the possibilities of
the Filipino child." Another added, "He has. how
ever. ■■- ready mind and .; fairly retentive memory "
Still another, <>"«' of lons experience In the Indian
schools, wrote. "Inferior even to the American
Indian child." One other, finally, gave the follow
ing Interesting opinion "To my mind, the Filipino
c hud does not '-v >■! the American child markedly
In anything. His apparent extraordinary aptitude
I attribute t>- his absolute Ignorance at •'•■ subjects
Wl teach. This (a Illustrated In the case of ;> man
of normal intelligence who has never learned to
read li' ; memory will retain three times .is murh
of an article he hears read as that of his literary
n*»|rhhor, whose mind Is crammed by constant read
ing."
Thf» last teacher's opinion Is 'interßßting,"
ns tiw author says, but Is it well founded? Most
rs of American children, we should say.
would agree that their own pupils are originally
quite ignorant of th,> subjects they go to school
to learn.
In the third edition of the "Life of General
c;*»orKc Gordon Bfeade," which the John C Win
ston Company has In preparation, the author.
Richard Meads Bache, has Introduced In the
form of a new appendix, entitled "MMd« vs.
Grant," a discussion of the question why Meade
was not promoted to the rank of lieutenant
general, Instead of Sheridan, after the ("■••ttys
burg campaign. Appomattox may have settled
the question as between North and South, but
as between the leaders on both sides of the
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Sabin,
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118, Shaftesbury
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line, the war appears still to go rancorously. '
happily liloodlessly. on
George Randolph Chester, whos* story Tha
Strike Breaker." published In "MrOlure'3 Ma|
azine." was republLshed In "The Literary »*
geatr as the "best short story of the year. *
become associate editor of 'Men and Women
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